Heretofore, posterboard has been provided in one color. In some manufacturing processes, the color is provided by beater dyeing the paper slurry prior to forming and calendaring the posterboard. The color has also been provided by calendar dyeing the posterboard, which involves imparting the color at the same time the posterboard is calendared. Both of these processes result in posterboard which is of a single color.
The color of posterboard has also been printed or coated onto one side of white posterboard stock. This also results in a posterboard having a single color, white being used herein in its technical meaning of the absence of color. Thus, posterboard has been provided in a single color, and in some instances the single color appears on a single side of the posterboard with the opposite surface being white.
The one color posterboard has inherent limitations to both the customer/user and to the business providing the posterboard to the customer/user at the wholesale and retail levels. With respect to those wholesaling posterboard, they must stock all colors in sufficient quantities to fill orders from retailers. These businesses try to anticipate demand, so as to stock colors in amounts corresponding to future customer sales, but this can be difficult to accomplish in practice. A particular difficulty is created by seasonal colors, e.g., the color orange is popular for Halloween but generally sells in limited quantities for the remainder of the year.
The retailer also has concerns regarding shelf or display space. Each color of posterboard requires space for stocking and display, and the retailer will desirably stock and display enough of each color for possible customer demand. Therefore, the retailer needs to devote some space to colors which are less popular but which some customers nevertheless want, albeit in limited quantities, resulting in slow turnover of stock of those colors. This is a problem for retailers having limited space, and is also a problem for large retailers who prosper on low margins through highly efficient inventory control and use of display space.
Consumers often find an incomplete selection of colors of posterboard, or a lack of a reasonable quantity of posterboard in a selected color. Further, if the consumer intends to use the posterboard as stock material to cut out panels smaller than a full sheet or to cut out letters or other indicia from the posterboard material, the customer has to purchase one complete sheet of posterboard for each desired color.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved posterboard which provides more color selection to the consumer/user, and also provides a method of inventory reduction without compromising the consumer's selection of colors.